New installation of Kubuntu useless

[Kuborange]

Im totally new to Kubuntu and frankly im not off to a good start

I just installed Kubuntu from a disk on a copy of Linux User & developer no 138 on a hard drive I purchased seperated from my Windows XP also on its own hard drive in my Dell Pentium 4 desktop computer.


It installed ok but apart from booting the computer it does absolutely NOTHING else whatsoever.

It boots into a screen with a set of 4 icons on screen with a hard drive and crossed spanner etc and hangs then writing appears and it presents me with a second screen where I click on my name then it partially re opens the first screen and hangs again and basically thats it. I initially could move the mouse but even that disappeared and the only way out was to push the reset button to get my computer back.

What gives?

[claydoh]

Downloading a known good copy of the install disc image would be my first place to start.
You can grab a 32-bit iso here:
http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu

My first thought is that there might be a corruption on that dvd, so grabbing an official image will help eliminate that. Also being able to try out Kubuntu in a live session before installing can be helpful

Not knowing what version of Kubuntu is on that dvd, the blurb from the magazine's site says "cutting edge distros", plus the date of release makes me wonder if they slapped a pre release alpha or beta on there.

[Kuborange]

There were two discs stuck to the magazine when I got it home. On the disc it says Kubuntu 14.04 beta. It doesnt matter which dic I used the result is the same .

[NickStone]

As Claydoh suggested, you may have a corrupted dvd from the magazine.

Back in 2009 when I got myself a pc after being without one for a few years, I had a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 from a magazine which I tried to install on the computer. It would not install so I downloaded the latest version from the Ubuntu web site (which was 9.10) burned it to disk and used that to install on the computer. It worked like a charm.

So just like Claydoh had suggested, download a new copy from Kubuntu's web site, check the MD5 sum and if matches burn to a DVD (or USB stick).

[Kuborange]

Im downloading it as we speak. Please excuse my ignorance but what exactly is an MD5 sum and what must it match. Im using Windows XP and Nero to burn my DVds

This appears to be a ZIP file do I unpack it first and then burn the DVD or will this happen automatically?

[NickStone]

Im downloading it as we speak. Please excuse my ignorance but what exactly is an MD5 sum and what must it match. Im using Windows XP and Nero to burn my DVds

This appears to be a ZIP file do I unpack it first and then burn the DVD or will this happen automatically?

Where are you downloading it from? You should be downloading a ISO file (which is a cd/dvd image) that you burn to a cd/dvd (depending on size of file) using disk burner software such as Nero for Windows or K3B for KDE.

From the web site where your downloading the iso file (I hope) it should also offer you either another file containg the md5 sum for that file or it should simply display the sum on the web site.

To compare the sum of the iso file you have downloaded with that on the web site simply type in to terminal (linux)

md5sum /path/to/file.iso

Once it generates the sum then simply compare that with the one from the web site. If sum is the same then burn it to a disk.

[claydoh]

If you look at the kubuntu download page I linked to, there will be links to instructions for all this.

An md5sum is a way to make sure that a downloaded file is exactly the same as the original, and not corrupted. The md5 is just a string of numbers and letters that need to match.

If you have a usb flash drive, you can use that instead of dvds, to save on burnung discs, if your computer can boot from usb.

When burning disks, use a slower speed and don't be surprised if you do get an occasional "coaster". Brand of disk, age of the burner, and the software used all can have an effect on getting a good disk. This is why I suggest using a flash drive as an option.

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